Jonathan Field - Maker of Random Stuff

Oh, yes: the album has cover art now. I actually put together most of the cover art the same night I finished the album, back on July 4th. I was originally going to release the art at the same time as the songs, but I thought it needed some additional tweaking so I held it back. Anyway, here is the final cover art, in large-ish form:

• Front Cover
• Back Cover
• Inside Cover
• Lyric Sheet Fold Out

All that plus on-disc printing is included with the physical CD. I’m pretty happy with the quality I got from “Disk Makers. The first batch of 50 is mostly gone already, but then again I gave most of them away. Now that the rest are for sale, we’ll see if I need to print up any more

You can buy one at CD Baby.

Thanks to Sophie for the photographs and creative feedback!

Finally the album, both as a CD and a download, is available for sale:

Drift at CD Baby

You are of course welcome to simply listen to the copy that I’ve posted here, but if you’d like to show your appreciation, or if you want a hard copy CD complete with album art and printed lyrics, you buy a copy there.

Sincere reviews are appreciated! Feel free to post your thoughts on that page.

Through CD Baby I should be on iTunes and Amazon eventually, though they’ve been less than clear about how and when that happens.

Once it’s up in iTunes and such, I’ll be posting a song-by-song log of my experiences and thoughts recording each track.

Well here it is. My first complete album of music since I collaborated on the 3 Honkees back in 1994.

Yes, It’s been 15 years.

I’ve done music in that time. Lots of it, but on and off. I never had the time or discipline to record a complete album until now.

Without further ado:

Jonathan Field – Drift

1. Nocturne
2. Everything Is Wrong
3. Drift
4. Paper Time Machine
5. So Hard
6. Don’t Make Me Any Promises
7. Pretty, Sad
8. I Still Care
9. You’ve Got To Start Somewhere
10. So Long

Download a zip of MP3 files here (39MB)

It’s all me and only me. Everything was written and recorded in the past couple months as I aimed for the arbitrary deadline of July 4th. I have lots of thoughts about the process and the finished product, but I just pulled an all-night session and it’s time to catch some sleep before some friends arrive for a bbq in a few hours.

It’s a pretty varied collection of songs. Hopefully you can find a few songs to enjoy, and not many to hate

Happy 4th!

Yay! Got some pics from the party. Thanks Crystal!

I just had a great birthday week. Sophie came out and we spent a night at the M resort since I had a good coupon. Then we went to the Mirage to see LOVE and spent a night there too. In a rare moment of true Vegasdom, we hit the casino floor and threw about $100 into the machines. We walked away with just a little over $100, so not too bad.

Then we spent most of Friday buying stuff for a pool party & birthday bbq for Saturday. It was a combined birthday for myself and my good friend Christa, who was also born on this lovely week in May. The party was a big success with some 40 people rocking out by the pool, snacking on cookout food, and generally having what appeared to be a good time. I’d never thrown a party that size before, so it was fun to see it all come together.

Currently, this is the only picture I have from the party. But that works.

Sophie was an amazing help with the party — making some super Korean Beef and managing the kitchen area for much of the festivities. And the guests were wonderful people that not only brought a great assortment of sides, drinks, and desserts, but they also cleaned up afterwards, too. The next morning upon waking I only needed to sweep the floor and carry out a bag of trash.

Then on Sunday there was _another_ birthday for pal Sotheavy. A big group went to Hostile Grape for delish wine and cheese time.

And now it’s Monday. I’m 36. What to do?

I found this presentation pretty mind blowing:

Bonnie Bassler on Bacterial Communication

I kind of love the TED conference; at least the web available video portions. It stimulates an exhilaration in me similar to the way Wikipedia often does. I should hop over there more often, whenever I worry that the world is getting stagnant.

I’m in Rhode Island, for my first niece’s first birthday. Visiting with the family and chilling out. And obviously watching videos online

So things have been enjoyable for the past month — except for the looming sense that this might all come to an end. By “this” I mean my financial independence. The fear that this might come to an end seems to keep me from really digging in to any cool projects. Lame, I know, but there you go.

Despite that, I was pleased to come across this little internet meme today:

1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random.
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 – Post it to FB with this text in the “body” and TAG the friends you want to join in. (you can untag yourself if you don’t want this photo up)

In step 5, replace Facebook (FB) with your favorite social site. I did mine on Facebook, but the fact that non-Facebook people can’t see them has pissed me off and so I am posting it here as well. My results:

Continue reading →

It was about this time of year that it happened. I had been working at Old Man Keffer’s garage when he dropped dead. That old piece of dried meat didn’t leave a damn thing in order, and the bank shut it all down a week later. I was flat broke with Patty and the baby to care for — I couldn’t even afford the medicine for her asthma. Anyone who knows me could probably guess I hit the bottle pretty hard.
Continue reading →

It’s sure been a while since I posted. Life has been full and I’ve traveled to the Carolinas and to New England for Thanksgiving and Christmas respectively. I’ve been hanging with some kewl new people and enjoying life here in Las Vegas as best I can.

On to the reason for this post: a story I wrote was posted to the front page of kuro5hin.org. Pronounced “corrosion”, it’s a site where users write stories and articles and then the members vote stuff up or down.

What may not be apparent unless you’re familiar with kuro5hin is that it’s largely a haven of vile misanthropes who despise almost everything. I’ve been occasionally reading and commenting there for years as the community has shrunk down to only the most stalwart and bitter members. I take it as a great honor that my story was accepted and voted up by such people.

I suppose it’s not too surprising — it’s a dark story. But I’m proud of it. Hope I can get myself to do more writing in the future.

Well, not entirely: since I last posted I had a great trip to SF for a wedding in Mendocino. While there I got to see lots of good old friends. Then I was the witness at a little civil ceremony back here in a LV for a couple other good friends. Everyone’s getting married! Despite my warnings!

Michelle and I did only one Halloween party as Mickey and Mallory Knox of “Natural Born Killers”. We did these outfits, but I did this hair.. I think we looked pretty great, but somehow we failed to get any pictures. Lame.

Other than that, things are just dragging. I tend to waste my way through the day. The election has me nerved up. I can’t wait for it to be over tomorrow night, whichever way it goes.

I’m pretty convinced that thanks to the economy and its effects on Zappos, I won’t be able to continue the “live frugally off stock and do something great” lifestyle I’ve set up. I’m going to need to get a job. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to go from life-crushing to creatively-inspired fast enough, and soon my time will be up. So it goes.

Want more?

Today I got a call from a close friend who’s had recurring problems with domestic violence. I mentioned it somewhere along the way in the South Africa journal. Anyway, after what seemed like her hitting rock bottom a few months ago, and a subsequent new beginning, I was hopeful and supportive on the condition she never let it happen again. But somehow in the past week or two she managed to let the guy back in the picture for the umpteenth time. Within a few days he had broken her collarbone and has been arrested again.

It kills me to walk away from someone I love who is so obviously in need of help, but it doesn’t seem I can help, and I just can’t be connected to it any longer. She told me she’s going to move into a shelter. I wished her luck and goodbye. So it goes.

On a more positive note, I went dancing at FreeZone this past Saturday with some great people, which was a lot of fun. I hope California’s prop 8 doesn’t pass.